8/17/2023 0 Comments Uss drum ss 228White was present for 11 of those missions, and Willy Williamson made 10. The vessel made a total of 13 patrols during its time in action. Robert Williamson explained the Drum’s significance as the first submarine of its classification constructed and the only one still in existence. Shipmates Bill Lister, Gerald DeRosa and Robert “Bob” White were also in attendance for the ceremony. “We used to go up on the (deck) of the (Drum) and line up to throw our roses in, but there are so few of us now this just works better,” said crewmember David Schmidt, 86. Shipmates then walked to the water’s edge outside the hangar - their underwater home sitting within sight - and tossed roses in in memory of fallen friends. There were too many that haven’t, and we need to honor them,” the younger Williamson told the crowd, while curious onlookers snapped photos of the surrounding wartime aircraft and memorabilia in the Alabama Pavilion.Īs is custom with the surviving crewmembers and their families who make the annual trek to Spanish Fort for the ceremony, the names of shipmates and their wives who have passed away were read and a bell tolled in their memory. “This is a solemn occasion for me, mainly because my dad made it back. And let their story of dedication to God and country never stop.” “So toll the bell, and let the roses drop. A time to honor the crew and the Drum,” he read. When the lives on this ship were put on the line. “A time of remembering of a long time ago. Robert Williamson, whose father Phillip “Willy” Williamson was one of only five crewmembers to make the trek for the 41st annual reunion, choked up several times as he read two poems, one mentioning the Drum by name and the other invoking its spirit. The June 18 ceremony commemorated the lives and deaths of all the vessel’s crewmembers, totaling 293. Rice’s father, Robert Rice, was the first commanding officer of the USS Drum, SS-228, now housed on the grounds of USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. “Though acquainted with the depths of the ocean, deliver from the depths of despair and the dark hours of the absence of friendliness and grant them a good ship’s spirit,” she read solemnly from “The Submariner’s Prayer.” As Rosamond Rice recited the words so dear to her father’s heart and those of the men and women gathered around her, the noise of the busy hangar fell away.
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